Every year at the Outdoor Retail Summer Market, a trade show for the outdoor industry, Trail Runner magazine hosts an Uphill Challenge. In each heat of the Uphill Challenge, two participants square off next to one another treadmills set to a 15% grade on which they run as far as they can in 15 minutes by controlling the speed. Not only do participants try to win their heat, but they also try to be named King or Queen of the Mountain by running further than any other competitor of their gender. Typically, the last two pairings feature showdowns between two top women and, then, two top men. This year was no different with Brandy Erholtz racing Anna Frost in the women’s finale before Philipp Reiter took on Max King in the day’s final race. In the end, Erholtz and King were the Queen and King of the Mountain.

Check out videos of the final two races below. (Sorry for the video quality… I didn’t have time to grab the camcorder from the car.)

I think I remember hearing that Simon Gutierrez ran 2+. Somewhere between 2-2.25, barley over but he broke 2..I think? Can't prove it might be online somewhere. I would venture to say Matt Carpenter could crack 2 easy, and probably could do it at like 10K feet?!

It seems I recall 1.8 to 1.9 in year's past though I may be wrong on that. Skaggs brothers maybe? Matt Carpenter is half alien and was miles ahead in the mountain running world for years. Think about that 2:01 Pikes Peak Ascent he did in 1993 and 2.5 miles sounds a lot more do-able :-)